Former All-American Jim Duffy Returns As Baseball's Hitting Coach

Duffy was Pirates' hitting coach from 2003-08. 1996 Seton Hall grad was a three-time ALL BIG EAST first baseman.

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall baseball team has announced the hiring of Jim Duffy as their hitting coach for the upcoming 2011 season. Duffy will join head coach Rob Sheppard, pitching coach Phil Cundari, volunteer assistant Mark Pappas, and head coach emeritus Mike Sheppard, Sr.

This season will mark Duffy's second stint as the hitting coach for the Pirates having previously held the same position from 2003-08. The 2011 season will be his sixth as a full-time coach, however he filled in as a part-time coach during the 2001 BIG EAST Championship season while then-head coach Mike Sheppard recovered from heart surgery.

Under his tutelage in the 2008 season, Pappas and Greg Miller earned New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association (NJCBA) First Team honors, Chris Affinito received Second Team honors, and then-freshman A.J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, N.J.) was awarded by being named to the NJCBA Rookie Team. In addition, Miller was named to the All-BIG EAST Third Team as an outfielder.

As the Hall's first baseman from 1992-96, Duffy was a three-time All-BIG EAST honoree. In just his third season, he ranked ninth in the nation with a .429 batting average en route to being named the 1995 New Jersey College Player of the Year and an All-American. The average also has Duffy tied for fifth with Mo Vaughn in the Pirates single-season record books.

In addition to his ranking in the single-season books, Duffy is the Pirates all-time leader in putouts (1,387), second in hits (247) and at-bats (709), and ranks fifth in runs scored (165). He also holds the record for longest hitting-streak with 29 straight games which was set in 1996.

Following his years with Seton Hall, Duffy signed a free agent contract with Houston Astros moving up as high as double-A before retiring in 2000 to pursue coaching.